A dessert could not look more perfect for a summer picnic than In Katrina’s Kitchen‘s Picnic Tablecloth Cookie Bars. This tray of buttery sugar cookie bars is topped with a sweet layer of vanilla and almond frosting, but the fun of the dessert comes from the decorations. The frosting is sprayed with edible food coloring to give it a red and white checkerboard effect and make it look like a tablecloth. The “tablecloth” is decorated with an ant trail and cookie crumbs, giving it a very cute and whimsical look.
Barcelona is a very inspiring city, especially because of the fantastic food that the city is known for. Bittersweet used a bit of Spain for inspiration in creating a Saffron Cashew Ice Cream, rich with a intense spice of saffron. The nondairy ice cream starts with nondairy milk that is infused with saffron until it has captured its strong flavor and bright color. The milk is combined with roasted cashews and lightly sweetened with sugar to highlight the saffron flavor before being churned into ice cream.
The Highway to Heaven Cupcakes that Sweetapolita baked up are definitely over the top – and that is what will keep you coming back for more. The moist chocolate cupcakes are injected with salted caramel sauce and splashed with coffee syrup before being topped with a velvety chocolate ganache. Then, as if that weren’t enough, the cupcake is then topped with salty ruffled potato chips and drizzled with even more caramel sauce. Yum.
Kugelhopf is really just another word for bundt cake, but it definitely makes the cake sound a little more elegant than your standard bundt. This beautiful Coffee Kugelphof from Cook Republic is definitely not your standard bundt. The rich sour cream batter is divided into two parts, and a generous amount of melted dark chocolate and instant coffee is added to one portion of the batter. The chocolate batter is poured on top of the plain batter, and because it is more dense, it sinks to the bottom of the pan during baking. When the cake is ready to be sliced, you’ll find that the delicious chocolate-coffee swirl is now on top of every slice.
Philadelphia-style ice cream is the common name for ice creams that are made without eggs or egg yolks. This style of ice cream is a little lighter than those made with an egg-rich base, and a little easier to put together, but just as delicious. Zoe Bakes‘ Philadelphia-style Chocolate Ice Cream is definitely rich, eggs or not. The ice cream is flavored with cocoa powder and with dark chocolate, and is made with a combination of heavy cream and milk. It’s a great base and can be used to make many variations by adding other flavors – such as orange zest or mint – or mix ins – such as chocolate chips or oreo cookies.
Strawberry season is here for the summer and there are lots of ways to put those juicy berries to good use. One way is in Tide and Thyme‘s Strawberry Yogurt Cake. This moist bundt cake is packed with bright, red berries that give each slice a very summery look. It is flavored with a bit of lemon and vanilla, which compliment the strawberries nicely. It is a rich and satisfying cake, made with butter, yogurt and buttermilk, and would make a good base for other berry cakes, as well.
The Creme Brulee Donuts that I Am A Food Blog look completely irresistible. The classic french custard dessert is reimagined in a bite sized ball of fried dough – and that is a good thing. These little round donuts are made with a yeast dough and are deep fried until golden. Each one is stuffed with vanilla pastry cream and topped with a little bit of glaze and sugar, which is caramelized to give the donuts the look and flavor of a well-prepared creme brulee.
Ibarra chocolate is a brand of Mexican table chocolate, which is made with coarse sugar and cinnamon, and comes in tablets that are meant to be used for cooking or making hot chocolate. The tablets can be used for all kinds of recipes and infuse a great flavor into a dish, such as the Mexican Chili Fudge from Macheesmo. The fudge uses Ibarra chocolate and semisweet chocolate as its base, to give the fudge a strong chocolate flavor, and is flavored with a generous pinch of cayenne to add some heat to the spice already found in the Mexican chocolate.
Peanut butter pie is a very decadent dessert that is loved by many – but it is so rich that sometimes you might not want to make a whole pie for yourself. A solution is to make up a batch of Peanut Butter Pie Shooters, instead. A Pinch of Yum made these delightful mini-desserts for a baby shower recently. The shooters pack in a satisfying portion of creamy peanut butter pie filling on top of an Oreo cookie crumb “crust” in small, elegant glasses. They’re beautiful to look at and are a great way to dress up a homey cream pie for a party – or break a whole pie down into smaller servings for regular events.
You can mix a lot of things – from fruit to nuts – into a batch of brownies for added texture and flavor. You can also mix in a whole candy bar, which is what My Baking Addiction did to create these Twix Brownies. Regular brownie batter is prepared and it is filled with a layer of chopped up Twix bars. The candy bars’ combination of shortbread cookie and caramel layers adds both texture and flavor to the brownies. To further highlight the caramel, the brownies are drizzled with an easy-to-make caramel sauce before serving.
A cupcake is sure to put a smile on your face, but a brightly colored cupcake will do the trick even faster. Culinary Concoctions by Peabody‘s Pink Ombre Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream. These pink cupcakes are dyed with several, graduated shades of pink that give them a very dynamic effect. The cakes themselves are simple vanilla, but they’re topped with strawberry buttercream frosting that ties in very nicely with the color. You could try for the same effect with other colors, as well.
Dulce de leche is a thick, sweet milk caramel that can be downright irresistible. The Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Squares from Technicolor Kitchen are just one of many great ways to utilize the caramel in the kitchen, and unlike some other recipes, this one really allows the dulce de leche to be the star. These bars start out with a buttery cookie crust that is topped with a dulce de leche and cream cheese mixture. The filling is baked in a water bath, but it has a little gelatin to help it set up as it cools, so you know it is tender. The finished cheesecake is very rich and creamy, with a strong flavor of dulce de leche to it.
Peanut butter, Nutella and Biscoff spread are three very popular sandwich and snack spreads. All are addictive on their own, but when you put them together, you get something over-the-top. Mississippi Kitchen‘s Layers of Love Torte is made with three mousse-like layers that are made with Peanut butter, Nutella and Biscoff spread. The mousse is contained by an Oreo cookie crust, which adds a nice contrast in color and flavor to the dessert. It looks elaborate, but the torte is actually quite simple to make, though it must be prepared ahead of time and refrigerated or frozen until ready to serve.
Rocky road ice cream is chocolate ice cream that is studded with pieces of almonds (or walnuts) and fluffy marshmallows. The flavor combination can be extended to all kinds of other sweet treats, too, and the Rocky Road Donuts from Steph’s Bite By Bite are a perfect illustration of this. These chocolate donuts are topped with a layer of marshmallow frosting and topped with a coating of finely ground almonds. The cake-like donuts are baked in a donut pan before being frosted and have no added fat in them, unlike deep fried donuts. They’re suitable for breakfast, dessert or any time you need a snack to go alongside a cup of coffee.
Just about any cake that you can think of would be welcome at a party, but somehow a Margarita Cream Cake, like the one that The Galley Gourmet recently baked, sounds as though it might be the perfect party cake. The super creamy “cake” requires no baking and is made with whipped cream, cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk – and is flavored with margarita mix, tequila and triple sec. A little bit of gelatin makes the mixture thick enough to slice, and a chewy-crispy coconut and salty pretzel crust makes a nice base for the dessert. It’s like a cocktail in a cake!
In the summertime, when strawberries are plentiful, it is great to have a few extra ideas on how to use them up. Strawberries are usually at their best when they’re not cooked or baked, so a dessert like this Strawberry Tiramisu Trifle from Jo Cooks. The layered dessert combines vanilla pudding, mascarpone cheese, coffee, ladyfingers and fresh berries. It’s easy to put together and is the kind of dessert that can be made well in advance, so that the flavors have plenty of time to marry. Chill it well before serving and you’ll have a sweet and satisfying dessert that is perfect for hot weather.
Another strawberry dessert can be found at Sips and Spoonfuls. This Strawberry and Pistachio Cake pairs strawberries with pistachios in a very easy to make, and very visually appealing, cake. The cake itself is made with a generous amount of pistachio meal, which you can make simply by grinding pistachios into a fine flour in the food processor, and pistachio milk, which is very similar to more common almond milk (which can be substituted here). The cake is topped with sliced strawberries that add a pop of color to the cake.
Chocolate chip cookies aren’t usually breakfast food, but when you combine them with cinnamon rolls then you have a winning – and breakfast appropriate – combination. Mis-Cake’s Oven Adventures‘ Chocolate Chip Cookie Cinnamon Rolls with Brown Sugar Malted Glaze start with a sweet, fluffy yeast dough that is rolled out and stuffed with homemade chocolate chip cookie dough. The buns are rolled up and baked until they’re golden brown, and then they are topped with Malted Brown Sugar Glaze that makes then even more decadent. These are definitely over-the-top – but worth it for the chocolate chip cookie lover.
The spicy kick of wasabi is what makes it a favorite condiment for many people, and while you’ll often see it with sushi, it is becoming more and more common to see wasabi pop up other places these days. That said, it’s still surprising to see it in dessert form. Katie Cakes used it in these Wasabi and White Chocolate Cupcakes. A generous amount of wasabi paste goes right into the fluffy white chocolate cupcakes to give them a surprising heat. They’re not strongly wasabi flavored, but instead have an unusually spicy flavor to them underneath the sweetness of the cake. They’re topped off with vanilla buttercream that is tinted with a hint of green as a subtle signal about what flavors the cake.
If you like chocolate and mint, you just might start to drool when looking at the picture of Rock Recipes‘ Midnight Mint Chocolate Cake. The towering cake has four layers of fluffy, dark chocolate cake that are stacked up with a generous amount of mint frosting. The whole thing is topped with a chocolate ganache glaze to give it a glossy, polished look. The black and white effect that you get with each slice is beautiful – and just about irresistible.
Summertime is s’mores season, and the Super Simple S’mores Bars that Tracey’s Culinary Adventures recently tried are a great way to enjoy this treat. The bars are quick and easy to make. They start out with a buttery sugar cookie base made with graham cracker crumbs to give it that s’mores flavor. The base is pressed into a pan and topped off with a layer of chocolate bars – Hershey’s is the classic choice for a s’more – and spread with marshmallows creme. A sprinkling of reserved cookie crumbs is added to the top before baking. The finished bars are tender and chewy, with a great amount of chocolate and marshmallow to balance out the cookie.
The Chocolate Chip Biscoff Cookies from War and Yeast promise to be nothing short of amazing – and since they’re made with browned butter, chocolate chips and additive Biscoff spread, it’s not hard to believe! These cookies are also made with an unusual mixing method, where the base for the cookie dough is prepared on the stovetop so that the sugars are caramelized before the dough is mixed together. The result is a dense, chewy cookie that is satisfying to eat both in texture and in flavor.
Buttermilk can actually make a great base for ice creams and sorbets because it is very creamy, but has a refreshingly tangy flavor that makes the ice cream taste and feel lighter. Cooking with Michele definitely had great results with this Buttermilk Ice Cream with Marcona Almonds. Light and just tangy enough to make it addictive, the ice cream has a great flavor and one that goes well with all kinds of things that you might want to stir into it. Almonds add a nice crunch, but consider pairing the ice cream with fresh berries, a splash of caramel or even simply topping it with a drizzle of maple syrup before serving.
